Hobby Progress, week 12

I’ve been doing this for twelve weeks now, can you believe?! It’s been pretty great for motivation, I’ll say that – the thought of not having anything to publish here of a Sunday has really helped to get me painting, and I need all the help I can get sometimes! So many unfinished projects have been languishing since the summer last year, and this week, I’m taking a look at quite a few! But let’s start with Space Marines.

Last week’s update featured some progress on some Ultramarines, as well as the suggestion of doing something fantastic with the Novamarines successor chapter. Well, take a look!

First up, let’s talk Novamarines. These guys look amazing in artwork for the game, and I really want to get a small squad together, but having done these two guys to just this point, I’m no longer sure I want to do a full squad! The quartered scheme is certainly different, and while it’s always fun to try out new stuff, I’m already wondering if it’s beyond me! This is just a base coat of Kantor blue and washed with Drakenhof Nightshade, as well as a recess wash of Nuln oil on the white parts. It took almost an hour to get these two painted to this point, as I was trying to be so damn careful to get the lines straight etc. I want to do a third, as I have a sergeant-type guy who was built out of specific bits so as to be the Novamarines sergeant, but whether I’ll get all five done will possibly remain to be seen. The tutorial I’d found seems to leave the blue at this stage, and just edge-highlights from there, but I feel this is far too dark for my liking, so I’m thinking I might go for Alaitoc blue, with some Hoeth blue highlights. The armour is described (somewhere) as cobalt, so I’m thinking it needs to be quite bright. We’ll see, anyway! Suffice it to say, I’m glad I haven’t planned an army of these guys!

The Ultramarines are coming along nicely – I’ve actually been doing some work on the other two as well, though they’re nowhere near as far along as these chaps. I’ve been feeling a bit down on them for the past couple of days, in part because of the blue-ness they have. This sounds weird, but when I see the model being blue, with a blue base, it just looks weird, and I wonder if I’ll ever finish it. By painting the base like this, I suddenly feel like they’re almost done. It’s clearly a psychological thing!

I hate painting eyes, but have done them on all of the Ultramarines and the Deathwing I have going on right now! They’re not perfect, but I’m hoping that the Carroburg crimson wash has helped to define the lens enough that any overspill onto the face can be seen as a glow-effect, anyway! So they’re coming along. I think I might have to do the bases for these guys as well soon, as that’ll help make them look a lot more complete than they have been! There are still a lot of small details to do, of course, and I think it really needs a concerted effort to get done. But for now, they continue to plod along, slowly but surely.

I’ve been having something of a basing extravaganza yesterday, where I took a whole bunch of models that were almost done, some except for the bases, and over the course of about four hours, got them sorted there. For many, it’s now just a case of some small details before they’re finished.

Yes, folks, it’s Necrons! In my end of February post, I shared a picture of my waiting area, with a whole host of models in varying stages of completion, and most of these are Necrons. Among other things, I had ten Immortals that needed serious attention, five more that just needed basing, and ten Lychguard that needed some kind of attention, including basing. Having spent so long with a variety of different models, it felt really great to be back with models that I’m not only familiar with, but know I can pretty much churn out fairly quickly.

These chaps are now pretty much finished, I might drybrush some green onto the snow at the rear, to simulate the glow of the weapons, but that’s it. I have another squad, with tesla carbines, who are very close to completion, but in all, I think I now have six squads of Immortals painted up. At some point, I hope to really get into playing 40k, and my dislike of the Necron Warrior model has led to my having these guys as my troop choices. Well, anyway!

Finally, we have this big guy. My local GW store is doing a paint it purple (and paint it black) competition next week, so I thought it’d be the perfect excuse to finish off at least one of my Ogres! I’ve had this guy sitting there waiting for so long now, it’s untrue – the base colours were all done some time last year, and the green base was done over the last August Bank Holiday weekend. However, there have been a number of small, maddening details that remained incomplete. Notably the hair. I can’t tell you how many philosophical musings I’ve had about “what colour would hair be if your skin is purple?” I’ve finally hit upon this blue colour, done the same way as I do the crests for my Stormcasts – maybe the crests are made from dead Ogors! Well, anyway. I don’t think he’s going to win any awards, but it’s been a great impetus to finally get one of these chaps done! Now that I’ve seen him, maybe I’ll get some more finished, as well!

All in all, it’s been a really fun week for painting! I think I like to have this variety of models on the go – not too big that it puts me off doing anything, but enough that I don’t get bored doing the same colours over and over again. Anyway, it’ll be the end of the month again next time, so I’ll probably have another retrospective-type of post. I’m certainly hoping to be progressed with the Novamarines, and also have more done to the Deathwing and Ultramarines.

3 thoughts on “Hobby Progress, week 12”

Thanks man! Yeah, they’re definitely my least favourite thing right now. Only five and a half more tactical squads left to do, though! Then the devastators…I think I might stick with Necrons for the time being!!